S.C. Legislature overrides Haley veto, cancels deepening permit

COLUMBIA — Both houses of the South Carolina General Assembly have now voted to override Gov. Nikki Haley’s veto and effectively cancel an administrative decision to allow the Savannah harbor to be deepened.

By a vote of 39-0, the state Senate voted to toss aside Haley’s veto of H. 4627, following the House’s 111-1 vote on Tuesday. The resolution, H. 4627, says that when the S.C. Department of Health and Environmental Control Board awarded a dredging permit, it had “unlawfully usurped” the authority of the S.C. Savannah River Maritime Commission, a panel the S.C. Legislature had created in 2007.

The action that sparked months of upheaval occurred on Nov. 10, when Haley’s appointees to the DHEC Board approved a settlement between the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and DHEC staff. That approval came after the state of Georgia offered concessions related to financing an oxygenation system and setting aside addition wetlands.

The water quality certification that was awarded to advance Georgia’s plans to deepen about 38 miles from 42 feet to 48 feet drew furious reactions from South Carolina lawmakers. Members of the General Assembly said Georgia’s plan would put South Carolina’s ports at a disadvantage and damage the ecology of the Savannah River. So the lawmakers passed H. 4627, aimed at undoing DHEC’s decision. Haley vetoed it on Monday. And lawmakers quickly trumped her veto.

“The governor’s veto of this resolution was just as off base as DHEC’s decision,” said Senate President Pro Tempore Glenn McConnell, a Charleston Republican, in a statement.

“This is not about separation of powers. It’s about reining in a rogue agency that wasn’t following science or the law. Our vote today is not only about protecting our port infrastructure and the environment. It’s about sending a message that state agencies are not free to disregard the law.”

Earlier in the week, McConnell had called Georgia’s $650 million project “the rape of the river.”

A DHEC spokesman has declined to comment on the dispute, citing pending legislation in the S.C. Administrative Law Court leveled by the state Maritime Commission and environmental groups represented by the Southern Environmental Law Center. Backers of the commission’s side, which is receiving assistance from the S.C. Attorney General’s office, expect the new law to bolster their position against DHEC.

The deepening of the Port of Savannah is considered to be the Peach State’s most crucial public works project and is intended to prepare the channel for larger post-Panamax container ships expected in 2014.

A spokesman for Haley, who has called Georgia a “sister state” and urged lawmakers not to promote the Port of Charleston by obstructing the Port of Savannah, declined to comment Thursday.

A spokesman for the corps also declined to speculate on the ramifications of the new law.

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